New recycler pitches service to local mayors

A Grand Coulee woman pitched the area’s four mayors Monday to begin a recycling service, and suggested that they start up their own garbage collection system.

Kimberly Christensen said she intends to begin small with a new recycling service, placing collection bins in strategic places, and then work toward curbside collection.

Operating as Ever-Green Recycling, Christensen said that her program is starting in Wilbur and she hopes to get started in the Grand Coulee Dam area very soon.

She told mayors at their Monday meeting that they should look into doing their own garbage pickup and keep the money they are spending with Sunrise Disposal.

Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands said the mayors, at the proper time, should look into it.

Currently, the Regional Board of Mayors and their respective cities and towns are in the third year of a five-year contract with Sunrise Disposal, and there’s another five-year option at the end.

Christensen came at the mayors in another way, suggesting that the mayors get in the recycling business and that she join them in a business arrangement or work for the RBOM as their recycling person.

She also suggested that she planned to apply for a grant to further the project along, and asked if the cities wanted to jointly file for the grant.

She intends to pick up corrugated cardboard, aluminum cans, chip board, glass, copper, other metals, and different types of plastic. Christensen stated that she is looking at both an Electric City and Grand Coulee site for collection bins.

Grand Coulee Mayor Chris Christopherson answered for the mayors when he asked Christensen to come back with a specific plan with any financial figures so the mayors could look at it.